MIT Solve

Solution Overview

Solution Name

save young lives foundation uganda

One-line solution summary.

The Solution

To reduce environmental pollution and landfill from Electronic waste and increase life span of electronic devices in hands of refugees & Host communities in Rhino Camp.

What is your solution?

save young lives foundation Uganda(sylfu) in a bid to solve the above mentioned problems plans to scale up its operation by establishing 3 stationed solar-powered repair café centers in three zones (Eden, Ocea, and Tika Zones) in Rhino Camp with most, if not all required repair tools and simple parts for replacement and also conducive storage for devices pending repair or collection point for devices beyond repair so as to recycle them and save the environment. In order to reduce the proximity for the refugees and host community, sylfu shall organize routine zonal mobile repair café’s outreach to the various zones to fix community devices after massive mobilization for the same. The community shall be informed about the mobile repair cafe schedule prior to the actual date to prepare their devices ready for the repair sessions.

sylfu shall also carry out awareness on the key aspects of repairs, reuse and maintaining electronic devices so as to increase their lifespan and maximize on the benefits associated with them including awareness on the potential health and environmental dangers associated with poor disposal of broken electronic devices.

What specific problem are you trying to solve?

PROBLEM

Rhino Camp refugee settlement in the Northern region of Uganda is a home to 127,574 refugees from South Sudan, Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, Central Africa Republic and Kenya who flee because of political instability(war) according to UNHCR's data shared in July 2021. UNHCR and other Partners distributed electronic devices such Mobile Phones, Radios and off-grid solar products have been increasingly provided to and coupled to those owned by the local community members (refugees) as main sources of communication, entertainment, access to news, recharging electronics and lighting respectively. These electronics, like any other, break down or reach their life expectancy and are oftentimes disposed-off by way of burying into the ground, burning, dumping to pit latrines and open landfill which result in human hazards and environmental pollution.

Community members often travel a longer distance of 63km in search for repair centers to fix their broken devices due to lack of repair shops within the settlement which is costly in terms of distance and money and obviously not sustainable. To make it worse, access to Information and knowledge on electronics repairs, reuse and maintenance has been a challenge to most of the women and youths including people with disabilities in Rhino Camp Refugee Settlements in West Nile of Uganda.

Who does your solution serve? In what ways will the solution impact their lives?

Target Group

Women.
Youth.
Persons with Special Needs -PSN

Local Leaders including Refugee Welfare Council (RWC’s and LC’S)

What steps have you taken to understand the needs of the population you want to serve?

In September 2021, the organization piloted the repair café project through its small funds from member subscriptions in one location (Eden) that attracted many people with various skills. The project was demanding and the communities kept pursuing sylfu to source for further funding from well-wishers in order to scale up the program for the benefit of the communities not only in Eden but other zones within the settlement since the project helped reduce the long distances traveled to fix devices

Which aspects of the Challenge does your solution most closely address?

Other: Addressing an unmet social, environmental, or economic need not covered in the four dimensions above

What is the unmet need that your solution tried to address? Why is it important?

The project aims to reduce environmental and human health damage and develop systems for reusing, repairing and recycling of electronics products. The project will also produce and share learning around the unique factors affecting electronic repair and e-waste management in displacement settings in order to help ‘green’ existing humanitarian operations in other places.

Our solution's stage of development:

Pilot: An organization deploying a tested product, service, or business model in at least one community

Explain why you selected this stage of development for your solution—in other words, what have you accomplished to date?

In may 2021, the organization piloted the repair café project through its small funds from member subscriptions in one location (Eden) that attracted many people with various skills. The project was demanding and the communities kept pursuing sylfu to source for further funding from well-wishers in order to scale up the program for the benefit of the communities not only in Eden but other zones within the settlement since the project helped reduce community problem at the refugee settlement.however due to the high demand of the project in other locations within refugee settlement where the project had not being implemented ever since refugees fled to the country. therefore sylfu is sourcing for funds to implement the same project in the areas where it had not being implemented.

Where our solution team is headquartered or located:

Arua, Uganda

Team Lead:

vita Robert